PM Scott Morrison ‘caught out lying about Labor again’

Morrison on the campaign trail

The West Australian

VideoScott Morrison is at Gulf Western Oil in St Marys, Sydney for his first day of election campaigning.

Federal Treasury has taken the extraordinary step of issuing a public denial that bureaucrats produced costings showing Bill Shorten would burden Australia with $387 billion in taxes if Labor wins the election.

The revelation has seriously undermined Scott Morrison’s first political attack of the 2019 election campaign, and Labor has seized on the development to accuse the Prime Minister of lying and politicising Treasury.

Mr Morrison claimed overnight that Treasury had costed seven of Labor’s policies and the costings showed Labor would be the highest taxing Australian Government on record.

However, Shadow Treasurer Chris Bowen wrote to Treasury Secretary Philip Gaetjens this morning seeking an explanation.

Mr Gaetjens told him Treasury never costed Labor’s policies.

Bill Shorten has responded to Scott Morrison after he announced the Federal Election for May 18th

The West Australian

VideoBill Shorten has responded to Scott Morrison after he announced the Federal Election for May 18th

“Treasury received requests from the Treasurer’s office outlining a number of policies to be costed with details and specifications also provided,” Mr Gaetjens said in his letter.

“The specifications made no reference to the Opposition.

“The relevant officials costed these proposals and provided this analysis to the Treasurer’s Office prior to the commencement of the caretaker period [before the election was called].

“In providing specific costings to the Government at its request, Treasury advised that they were all costed on a standalone basis but with interactions between the individual proposals not taken into account. For this reason we did not provide a total.”

Mr Morrison claimed this morning the “Treasury costings” showed Labor’s policies would add up to a $387b tax hit to the economy by 2029-30.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg made a similar claim.

The story was fed to major newspapers on Thursday, receiving front page treatment on Friday. But Mr Gaetjens says the $387 billion figure did not come from Treasury.

“Scott Morrison has been caught out lying about Labor again. This is a humiliating rebuke and confirms that Scott Morrison cannot be trusted on the economy,” Mr Bowen said on Friday.

“Treasury completed a costings request based on policy details and specification not provided by the Opposition, but by the Treasurer’s office.

“The last six years have seen a determined effort by Scott Morrison and successive Liberal Treasurers to politicise and devalue the Treasury and its officials.

“This is bad for Treasury’s reputation as an apolitical economic agency and bad for the important place it occupies in the Australian economy.”

However, Mr Frydenberg has not backed down, saying Labor is “refusing to own up to their $387b tax bill”.

“Despite Chris Bowen’s desperate attempts at distraction, none of his frontbench colleagues have disputed that Labor’s new taxes total $387b, the equivalent of an extra yearly tax bill of $5400 per household.”